documenting my journey from a stable, professional career to a traveler around the world

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Day 193 - Last Day in Florence and the Uffizi Gallery

Today would be my last full day in Florence, and I made sure to visit one last museum, the Uffizi Gallery, before heading back to Rome.

I first met up with Alessandro in the early afternoon and he took me to one of the less visited churches in Florence, the San Miniato al Monte, on the other side of the Arno River. There was a large cemetery at the back of the church where some of Florentine's famous are buried. Like the cemetery I visited in Prague, there were plots of land with Huge tombstones and/or statues for the dead. Inside, Alessandro pointed out the tombstone tiles on the floor of the church, and said that many people were buried right under the church during the Black Plague because there wasn't enough land outside the church. Just a few hundred meters away from this church was another church, the San Francesco, where I made a quick visit.

Heading back across the Arno River, I made my way to the Uffizi Gallery, which is a huge museum full of Italian Renaissance Art and sculptures. The Gallery holds all the artwork from the Medici family and includes many works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael, among a bunch of other artists. The most recognizable artwork that is in the gallery's possession was probably Botticelli's Birth of Venus which I immediately recognized when I walked into one of the rooms (there must have been over 50 different spaces to walk through on 2 floors to get through all the artwork). It took so long to go through the gallery that I got really tired and restless by the end of it, and I already feel like I'm all museum'd out through these past 6+ months!

Back to Rome tomorrow!

San Miniato al Monte

The Americas are believed to have derived their name from this man. There were other famous Florentine statues near the Uffizi Gallery. I found all the ninja turtles except Rafael.